Chris Trotter: Published Author

I recently spoke to local author Chris Trotter. Yes, another one! This is my year for speaking with Edinburgh authors. Chris recently published “The Storyteller”, the fruit of a year’s labours. This is another book I would recommend reading – it truly is a stunning piece of writing, a mixture of medieval adventure and modern reality.

Chris describes what the book is about by saying, “Thirteen year old Jamie is feeling unloved with a mean father, careless mother and a malicious sister. On his annual holiday to the caravan park he decides to explore the area. There he finds an old gypsy storyteller who tells him the fable of the land beyond and explains to Jamie what life is really about.”

Surely ideas like this can be hard to think up? Well not to Mr Trotter. He commented that, “thinking up ideas is the easy bit! Writing them down to a high standard is the hard bit.”

For Chris, books have always been something of a salvation. He went through a particularly tough childhood and a period of anxiety and found that books were “comforting, exciting and contained many great ideas to explore”. In particular, Chris loves Robert Swartzs books – he wrote a book about how life is planned before birth. Some other books he would call his favourites are “Wind in the Willows”, “Angels and Demons” and “The DaVinci Code”.

When actually writing The Storyteller, Chris said he “found that he wanted to go with the flow” but he had to reign in the creative juices and carefully plan the contents of each chapter to keep the complicated plot from becoming incomprehensible.

Chris also said that the amount of time he spent per day writing depended on his feelings. On good days he could write for three hours straight but sometimes he would only write a few sentences.

I have known Chris for many years – we have even appeared in Panto together! What a treat it has been not only to read a novel written by somebody you know, but to find that the story is genuinely engaging. Highly recommend it.

For further information visit: http://www.austinmacauley.com/us/author/trotter-chris-0

By Ben Liddall

Milo Yiannopoulos and the Alt-Right

Donald Trump has always been a controversial man and one of his supporters is the same. He entered the spotlight as an editor for the right-wing website Breitbart. His views on Islam and feminism are similar to President Trump’s. Milo Yiannopoulos resigned from the company after he appeared to endorse sex between ‘younger boys’ and older men. He has claimed that the decision to leave was completely his own.

 

Milo Yiannopoulos is a very controversial man. His statements have angered many people. He’s known as the face of the alt-right, which is quite something as he’s a gay immigrant, something traditional conservatives aren’t completely supportive of.

 

Milo Yiannopoulos is certainly a controversial character, but is all this fair for one statement? Many people have been affected by this and are shocked in his actions. People have seen him in a new light.

 

By Patrick, Ruth and Meghan

Unexploded Bomb Discovered In Portsmouth Harbour

In the early hours of this morning an unexploded bomb was discovered by a dredging team. The Royal Navy said the device, believed to be a German SC250 bomb weighing 226kg, and containing 131kg of highly dangerous explosives. The bomb has been disposed at sea by the Royal Navy bomb disposal team.

Because of the discovery, there were extensive road closures in the area-but they have since been re-opened. Along with this, all ferries and trains leaving or arriving in Portsmouth Harbour were stopped as well.

Lt Mike St Pierre, the officer leading the bomb disposal team, had said: “My team is assessing the situation to work out how we can remove the bomb swiftly and safely with the help of the contractors, the Queen’s Harbour Master, Hampshire Constabulary and our operations centre.

There is a rising concern about unexploded bombs, as many have been discovered in past months.

The Royal Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team advised residents to stay in their homes, open the windows and move away from the outer walls in case of an explosion.

By Ben Liddall and Ben M

Trump’s travel ban prevents life-saving surgeries

Children with life threatening illnesses have been banned from the USA– and that’s where they were going to be treated. There are around three dozen children and adults who are in need of potentially life-saving surgery and the new travel ban is preventing them from getting what they need to survive.

Luckily, Mexico and Canada have told these people that they will be welcome in hospitals there, so once the paperwork is done then they will get their operations – hopefully it won’t be too late by then.

There is also another problem in the health system, related to not letting people in to countries. Two fifths of our health service is made up of non-British nurses/doctors; and the same can be said about America. Post Brexit, we may not be letting these people into our countries, so our health system may not be able to cope. We can only hope that we will still let these people in, and we will have the next generation of doctors.

By Hannah and Anna

Endangered Antelope face extinction in Mongolia

In Mongolia, a virus called PPR has been decimating the population of the endangered saiga antelope. Over 2000 of the antelope have already died of the disease, which originated in livestock. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that there are only around 50,000 saiga left, so if the disease spreads, it could decimate the remaining antelope and perhaps wipe out the species.

The disease was confirmed in saiga for the first time in early January. It is feared by conservationists that the disease may spread to other animals living in the local area; such as ibex and Mongolian gazelles. This could have a drastic effect on endangered snow leopards, which eat these animals.

Saiga numbers have fluctuated over the years. In Soviet times, saiga were hunted in vast numbers, but numbers recovered to around a million in the early 90s. However, the numbers have fallen to around 50,000-most of them in Kazakhstan. This is partly due to the demand for the saiga’s horn, which is used in traditional medicine. Therefore, saiga are prized by poachers.

The antelope numbers are falling heavily, and the Mongolian subspecies is in danger of being lost forever. For now, the dead bodies of the antelope are being burned to prevent disease from spreading.

By Tom

France’s Election: Marine Le Pen

The presidential election in France is often overshadowed by other worldwide events, Trump, for instance has stolen most of the attention of the press. However, now that the French election is drawing closer and closer, we must take a closer look at the candidates running for French president.

Marine Le Pen is the running representative for the National Front (NF) and has pledged, not unlike Mr. Trump, to deal with mass immigration and financial globalisation. According to her, financial globalisation and Islamist globalisation are ‘helping each other out’. She also claims that both of those things ‘aim to bring France to its knees’. Perhaps stealing Donald Trump’s line she has claimed that she is the only real candidate for the people and that the ‘rich right and left’ are simply not good enough. Her deputy Florian Philippot has said that ‘They see Brexit, they see Trump and they’re saying: “It’s worth going to vote.”’ Marine Le Pen is often viewed as France’s Trump, but can she recreate his victory? Many of her fans see her as a shining beacon of hope, but having seen Trump’s recent actions and how Brexit has turned out so far, the real question is how this will affect what people vote?

Meghan, Ruth, Patrick

Thousands of Homes Destroyed in the Phillipines

15,000 homes have been destroyed in Parola Compound, in Shantytown, Manila’s port area, in the Philippines during an 8 hour raging fire. The blast has caused many scenes of destruction, though no one was left dead or severely injured. Many families have lost all they owned and are left with nothing. A local has told of the explosion that started the fire. She told of how the fire had started at around 9pm. Fire fighters had come, though did not want to enter, as the fire was too strong. The fire was still going until 3am. The locals are now left to pick up the pieces and start over.

By Emma and Sophie

Trump’s Travel Ban

As many of us feared, Donald trump has become president and as one of his first moves he put in a travel ban, which will stop people traveling to the USA from seven mainly Muslim countries. The new rules (brought in on Friday) also stop Syrian refugees, who have fled their home in hope of a life without violence, from entering America. Mr Trump claims that this is not a ban against Muslims, and will simply keep American people ‘safe’ from the ‘radical terrorist groups’ that are active in these countries.

Over the last few days there have been protests all over the world, including one in our hometown, Edinburgh that some members of the BBC schools report attended. Lots of lawyers have also agreed to give free services to those affected.

Luckily, those who have duo nationality with one of the countries in the travel ban are still allowed to travel to the US as long as one of their nationalities is outside the seven countries.

What’s your opinion? Do you believe the people should be kept out of the US because of their nationality?

By Hanna

Problem with Malaria treatment

The combination drug, artemether-lumefantine has failed in treating patients for the first time. The drug is one of the most effective anti-malaria treatments and is used to treat the 1500-2000 Brits who return to Britain with malaria each year. The treatment failed in 4 cases, between October 2015 and February 2016. The patients were treated in other ways, but it is very worrying that some of the treatments may become ineffective.

Malaria is a deadly disease carried by Mosquitos. It kills thousands every day, particularly in Africa. It kills around a million people every year. Throughout history, malaria has been one of the biggest killers of humans. Some people estimate that around half of all humans who ever lived have died of malaria.

Fortunately, there have been cures for over 100 years, saving many millions of lives. However, if these cures become ineffective, we will have to find new ways to help to stop one of the world’s deadliest diseases.

By Tom